1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to data replication, and particularly to automated data replication setup for movement of business data from a source data system to a target data system.
2. Description of Background
Before our invention, changes in business applications have required significant amounts of support and intervention from database administrators for replication of data within a business application system or from one business application system to another.
A business application generates or processes vast amounts of data that is located in one or more databases. Regardless of whether the application is an in-house project, an off the shelf application, or a vendor provided application, there is usually a need to move or distribute some or all of the data to one or more databases to allow for further processing.
The most common reasons for this need may include: separation of operational systems from analytical systems; performance; multiple analytical systems that address varying business questions, such as sales and trend analyses; and, delivery of information into other systems for various purposes, such as reporting.
Some business applications may provide their own data movement tools if the underlying data structure is rather static and simple. However, business applications can be dynamic by nature. They can provide the business user with the ability to create business level objects, modify business level objects, and define relationships between the business level objects. Business applications may also allow users to create high volumes of business level objects and business level relationships as well. These relationships among and between business level objects may change over time. Accordingly, there is often a need to utilize external data movement tools such as: in-house scripting and custom code; in-house frameworks specific to in-house structure and policies; off the shelf extract, transform, and load (ETL) tools; and ETL and replication tools provided with relational database management systems (RDBMS).
Internally, the business level objects and relationships are mapped to persistent storage structures, such as tables and columns, as managed and used by RDBMSs, for example. Changes to the underlying storage structure can have a direct impact on the data movement configuration. Currently, replication of a data structure that has undergone structural changes may require significant attention and database administration skills beyond those of the typical business user.